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I still have a few 2013 releases to catch up with, and I though I wanted to make my Oscar nominations predictions post having seen all of them, the nods are due early tomorrow morning so I’ll have to post them now.

I remember when I first decided to start a blog to review films I vowed I’d try to see as many films from any given year I could, so that I could get a real overview of the whole year in film and not try not to skip those films which I knew were just disasters waiting to happen. I also vowed that I’d see at least one more film each year than I had seen the previous one. In 2010, my first year doing this, I saw 210 films, which I thought was a pretty good number. In 2011 I saw 256 releases from that year, upping the quota from the previous year by a whopping 46 films. That number, 256, always seemed pretty huge and I doubted I’d be able to pass it this year. Well, Les Misérables (though I’m seeing it in January) is the 256th 2012 release I’ve seen, and I still have a few more films to go, so I guess 2013 will be the real challenge.

If I’m to be perfectly honest, I’m quite disappointed by Rise of the Guardians. Not because it’s bad (it’s not) but because a part of me was really looking forward to it and thinking that it would be in contention for the title of best animated feature of the year. Granted, that would be a hard title to get considering how amazing Wreck-It Ralph was (I gave that one an A), but this one’s not even in the Top 5 and it just looked so cool to me from the trailers I’d seen.

The cast of Butter, Jim Field Smith‘s ensemble comedy which premiered at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, is certainly an impressive one. From Jennifer Garner to Ty Burrell to Olivia Wilde to Hugh Jackman, you’d reckon that if these guys had signed on to do this movie it was probably something good, not to mention that Jason A. Micallef‘s screenplay for it came in third place on 2008’s Blacklist, so that was another thing going for it. And yet this was just a totally mess, responsibility for which I’m afraid I’m to pin on Mr. Smith who plays with the material with such a heavy hand and an overall sense of arrogance that whatever nice satire this film was aiming for is annulled.

Yes, we all know The Avengers are assembling this May, and that’ll no doubt be awesome, but the Marvel characters aren’t the only team of iconic characters gearing up to save the world this year. Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, the Sandman and Jack Frost are also teaming up to protect the children of the world in the upcoming Rise of the Guardians, the trailer for which you can watch above.

Les Misérables is a bit too over-the-top and pompous, but it’s still seriously well-made, with a passion and energy that translates to the performances (with one critical omission) even if it doesn’t always do the same with the vocals. Read my review for it here.

Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow’s follow-up to The Hurt Locker is an undeniable masterpiece, a film that’s both disturbing and 100% necessary, the most vital film about post-9/11 America. Read my review for it here.